Powerpoint high priest delivers another excellent performance and big laughs
Take the energy of a six-year-old, combine it with the wisdom of a man in his 50s and the power of technology and you get Dave Gorman.
The comedian and writer has made a career of getting laughs through using Microsoft Powerpoint as his comic prop alongside an eye for the absurd and preposterous, all while working at a speed comedians half his 52 years can only dream of.
The "high priest of the comedy Powerpoint talk" was in fine form as he returned to Dudley Town Hall for a second helping of his "Powerpoint to the People" tour, having rocked the venue in May, and he brought a lot of warmth to those braving the cold on a frigid night to see the show on Wednesday evening.
Right from the off, his mastery of Powerpoint was evident as he played around with saying hello to audience, engaging mirror mode on his accompanying laptop to get the audience laughing straight away.
It's a show he has been doing for a long time, but you can tell he still loves performing it, walking across the stage in an animated fashion, using big movements to engage with the audience on the floor and in the balcony of the hall and relishing some of the big jokes in the set.
I would struggle to say there was a specific theme to the show as Dave would take the narrative, with help from webpages he had discovered and funny messages from Twitter, around kicking himself in a delicate place to people no longer being sexist on social media and the different weight of crisps.
There was also a delightful section where he spoke about his six-year-old son Eric and how he had home-schooled him, even creating a new alphabet for him, while telling him tall tales about his childhood (something he described as his "Four Yorkshiremen" phase) compared to Eric's and how he discovered when the ciabatta was created (I won't give it away, but you'll be surprised).
His lockdown life played a part in the show, particularly his viewing of a BBC TV show and how the presenter was like his son through childlike joy at all the things in the show. I will stress now that I, along with the whole audience, promised not to mention this presenter's name outside of the show, so you will have to watch Dave Gorman's show to find out more.
Dave also showed that, even after multiple runs of this show, there is still one bit which causes him to break into hysterical laughter, involving a text from his mother. It's wonderful to see someone as polished as Dave Gorman struggling to compose himself because of the message on the screen.
The Powerpoint, as the title of the show suggests, plays a major part in the show, allowing him to show messages and news articles about the Billionaire Space Race, his nemesis from him creating cryptic crosswords and his theory about Tom Hanks.
It was a night of fun and laughter, with the ever-professional Dave keeping up the pace all night, producing funny slides and using mannerisms and changes of tone in his voice to perfection, with an highlight being one of the features of his TV show "Modern Life is Goodish", where he took all the comments about Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson and created a "Found Poem".
Dave Gorman is a true pro, very dedicated to his craft, very warm with the audience and also extremely funny. I would advise you to find a place to watch this show before it's too late.
